Facets of a Gem
by princess-kally
Summary: A series of short, unrelated ficlets. Various pairings. 11 - Dartz/Yami no Yuugi, plans.
1. AEMai x Atem

((Excuse any Ancient Egyptian social norm flub ups I make...))

AE!Mai/Atem

Other: Many thanks to My Misguided Fairytale for spotting a few errors! I've fixed them now.

* * *

Atem is bored out of his mind as he receives the various dignitaries, coming to visit the newly throned Pharaoh of Egypt.

...

A _woman_?

Whilst Atem had to utmost of respect for women, he had heard that most foreigners, barbarians that they were, owned their women like slaves. So this one must have been the daughter of a dignitary or...

...She's pretty. He thinks. No, _beautiful._

He flushes bright red as she notices his gaze and _smiles_ at him, wicked grin and bright, kohl lined eyes, and stunning yellow hair.

Hours later, after all the formalities are over and done with he finally gets a break. He intends to seek out Mana, but a familiar head of blond hair approaches him.

"There you are _honey_."

He raises an eyebrow at the foreign word she ends her sentence with. What he is impressed by however, is her almost accent less speech.

"Forgive me." He smiles in reply. "I never caught the name of a lady as beautiful as you."

She laughs in response, but there is a shadow across her eyes. "Mai."

"I'm the daughter of the ambassador." A brief scowl passes over her face. She laughs suddenly, and grabs him by the wrist. He leans into it instinctively, having been grabbed like this by Mana so many times, it's _normal. _

"Let's go somewhere."

Her laugh is captivating.

...

Several hours later, they're still discussing the advantages of a spear as opposed to a bow. It's a shame, he thinks, that Mai is a foreigner, because he prefers her far more to the... Wives... He's been introduced to. He doubts many of them care much for talk of hunting and strategy, much less the precise calculations needed for the trajectories of a spear as opposed to the bow.

Mai is animatedly talking about the puncture power of the spear, which, she insists, is far more powerful than the bow when a servant finally finds them, interrupting with a polite cough.

They both understand.

"Perhaps we will meet again," he offers at the dejected look on her face.

A barrage of emotions pass over her face.

"We will," she replies, and walks away, head held up high.


	2. Yuugi Mutou x Yami no Yuugi x Atem

**Title:** In a Golden Box, we Dance with our Devils  
**Pairing and Fandom:** Puzzle/Blind/Mobiumshipping (Yami Yuugi x Yuugi Mutou/Pharaoh Atem x Yuugi Mutou/Yami Yuugi x Yuugi Mutou x Pharaoh Atem), Yuugiou  
**Rating:** PG  
**Words: **598  
**Other: **unbeta'd  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yuugiou.

* * *

**In a Golden Box, we Dance with our-Devils **

He wonders who, or what, he is. There is no light, no way to recognise nor to understand self. There are no senses - sight, sound, touch, taste and scent, within this area. But occasionally, whispers of "sa Ra Ate-" echo through the empty space, and for a few precious seconds, he can _hear._ Time, he is sure, passes, as it wont to do, but he has no method to tell. Slowly, however, the years-months-days-decades-centuries pass, and one day the darkness recedes.

_"not enough"_

He is standing on the walkway of his tomb(but what was a tomb? he wondered). "_I've been waiting, Siamun."_ He says, and reaches towards the man - and there is something familiar about the sharp brown eyes, the spiky hair - but who is Siamun?

His question brings forth this -Siamon is trust and a solid guiding hand when the world is turning against you. Siamon is the one who has known you since infanthood, Siamon is a wise old man, tired, but not showing. Siamon is an amalgamation of many things but in the end, he is simply Siamon. Siamon is Siamon.

_"I need"_

He understands now though. He is not 'he' but 'he-it'. He is a Puzzle - but he is not. He is both more tangible and less so than "Puzzle". He is an amalgamation of Puzzle and the whispers of "sa Ra Ate-", him and the one who knows "Siamun". But what is he-it's purpose he wonders? He wonders no more, because the Darkness has returned, consuming everything including the ability for _thought._

_"where..._

_how..."_

The Darkness is being driven away - no - not driven away - it is _escaping. _The Light has found its way into the Darkness, creating Shadows through which the Darkness is _escaping. _He-it can see snatches of himself-itself for _he_ and _it_ are separating, unravelling at the seams. _He_ is short with bronze skin and tall hair and eyes of fire and compassion and _it_ is gold, blindingly gold and beautiful and naive and pure. The Darkness is escaping, but _he _finally understands. _It_ is his prison, but also his fellow guard against the Darkness. The Darkness, he understands, must stay. It must be Sealed forever, never to escape. He and it understands, and this is why they must resist the relentless attack that tugs at his heart and he cannot help but want to _protect _the Light behind because-

_"...nobody likes ...so short ...Anzu so nice ... friends ...it's a secret ...my wish ...friends ...never betray ...thanks Anzu ...No stop! ...pain ...please ..._help"

So he struggles against the pull of the Light that is pulling the Darkness away. He cannot allow the Darkness to escape. He understands that he has sacrificed everything to keep the darkness away(but does not understand how or why but it must be important, it must be). So he must stay.

_"I wish for friends... Friends who would never betray me, no matter what... And friends whom I would never betray!"_

He relents. It does not understand, but he does not expect it to understand. _I will place my trust in him. _He says. It does not understand but _I will trust you _is clear as it relents, and allows the Light to drag Him and the Darkness away.

_I will place my trust in you._

* * *

_"My treasure is in plain view, but you can't see it, so I can't show it to you!"_

A pause.

_"It's 'friendship!' Yugi and Jounouchi are visible... But our friendship is invisible!"_

And somewhere within the depths of a Puzzle-Pendant, they smile.


	3. The Little Things, Yami no Bakura x Anzu

TITLE - The Little Things

FANDOM & CATEGORY – Yu-Gi-Oh! Angst/Tragedy/Romance

PAIRING - Vexshipping (Yami Bakura x Anzu Mazaki)

RATING - T

WARNINGS – **character death, murder suicide**

SUMMARY – AU Vexshipping where Bakura wins.

* * *

She hates him - loathes him with all her heart, hates him for killing her friends. She hates hates hates and she holds onto that hate until it fills her very being. Clutches it until it consumes her soul and leaves her heart burning with heat and her mind fuelled by cold fire. She wonders if this is how he felt. She wonders if this is the same fire that he held onto, if this fire of contradictions - hot and cold - is the one that had burnt in him for so long, fuelling him.

He is attracted to her, attracted and fascinated by her fire. Fascinated by the small things that she clings onto, reminders of her old life, her friends. So he takes them away, one by one, and crushes them. A broken electronic match maker toy that feebly beeps - compatible match! A cheap yoyo, cracked, strings cut and dirtied with blood. The yellow ribbon which once had belonged to his former host's classmate, snipped into jagged pieces. A motorbike helmet, dirtied and crushed at his feet. A figurine of his former host, broken into tiny pieces of plastic. There were other things too, countless little other things which he broke in front of her eyes, laughing as he did so. He watches as her fire grows and burns and feeds on the broken remnants of the things she once clung onto. And then he orders her to dance. He is fascinated by her dance. She is beautiful and her movements are graceful but not, elegant but not. She mixes rationality and practise with passion and stumbling, graceless movements. She lashes out as she dances, a hop and a step and a flick of the feet. He loves it, absolutely loves how her grief feeds her fire and turns her dance - once pure, uncorrupted ballet, into something that that is a corrupted mockery her former perfection. He watches as she loses herself in the movements, watches as she tries to forget the pain and the terror and the grief. And he loves it.

She smiles brokenly as the ofuda clings onto him, rendering him mortal for a few precious seconds. It is enough. She wishes it wasn't. The knife plunges into his chest, and she can feel the warm liquid that splashes onto her hand, tainting her. She is startled, numbly so, by the resigned look on his face, as if he knew what was coming, the bastard. He smiles softly, gently and this wasn't supposed to happen, he was supposed to be angry and defiant - not accepting - and her thoughts are cut short because he captures her lips one last time. And then he disappears, melting away into the Shadows that he was so fond of. It is so strange, so anti-climatic, and she wonders why she feels so empty.

The gun feels heavy in her hands, but she knows what she must do. There is nothing left here for her, nothing left here for anybody. She sits next to the splash of blood on the floor, noting that it was the only proof that proved he had ever existed. She is hyper-aware of the cold tip of the gun, pressed against her skull and her own clammy hands which desperately grip it.

_ If we could be reborn in our next life,_ _then let's meet again._

The thump of a dead body contacting with the floor echoes through the large dance stage. But like the metaphorical tree in the forest that falls, if there is nobody alive to hear it, did it truly happen?

_In another universe, in another time..._

_Anzu Mazaki snarled at the teenager who had challenged her to a DDR match. "You're the one who bumped into me today!" She snapped, a spark of anger having ignited at the memory of the person's rudeness._

_He raised an eyebrow. "And?"_

_"It's only polite to apologise when you bump into someone."_

_"I refuse. Are you going to play or...?" Anzu seethed at the condensing tone._

_"Fine."_

_Ten rounds, six draws and two wins each later, Anzu and the white haired man - whose name she had not gotten(come to think of it, he appeared to be eerily similar to her friend Ryou) - sat, utterly exhausted._

_"You're good." He remarked, a cocky smirk on his face._

_"As are you." Anzu replied coolly, still somewhat tired._

_"Your name?" He sounded a bit too cool, a bit too calm. But she could see it. There was a slightly nervous tremor to his voice. She smiled inwardly._

_"Anzu Mazaki. And yours?" She replied cheerfully._

_"Bakura Touzokuo."_

_"Well Bakura. How about another round?"_

_He laughed, loudly. "You've got nerve. Fine. Let's go. I'm not going easy on you though."_

Anzu glared back at him. "Well neither am I."


	4. Eldrichshipping, ZorcHorakthy

_untitled, Eldrichshipping (Zorc/Horakthy) drabble_

_for Tumblr RPer necrophadesoftheshadows_

* * *

"It's alright."

Zorc is laying before her. At the mercy of her power. And yet, all she can feel for him is pity. He had fought as hard as he could, tempted as many as he could through _lust, greed, power, more always _**more.**

That was the nature of darkness. The ability to accept everything. To _take _everything. To consume and devour and want more and more. To consume to excess. The darkness would take everything, devour everything.

That was why the light existed. To take it back. To create balance.

Zorc had over stepped his boundaries. He had forgotten.

She hears faint whimpering from him as one by one, the Contracts of Darkness are dissolved and power is forcefully wrenched from his grasp. It is only a matter of time before his servants are gone, one way or another.

She kneels, cradles him in her lap. He's slowly shrinking, bit by bit, energy being torn from him.

It must be painful.

"Are you happy?" His voice is soft, sibilant. The final question of the defeated.

She smiles at him softly.

_"No."_

She brushes strand of hair away from his mortal container's face-

_"I'm sad."_

- and leans down, plants a soft kiss on his lips. Her touch, infused with the power of the Light spreads through him and his container slowly fades away into particles of light.

For a long time after, Horakthy sits there, smile frozen on her face.

And if a single tear leaks out from an eye, there is nobody around to notice.


	5. Sightshipping, Pegasus x Ishizu

**Title:** Dinner for Two  
**Pairing and Fandom:** Sightshipping (Pegasus J. Crawford x Ishizu Ishtar), Yuugiou  
**Rating:** G  
**Summary: **Pegasus, on the changes of Ishizu Ishtar. Pegasus sits there, sipping his wine, and thinks he might be content to stay like this forever.  
**Words: **386  
**Other: **Ask-box fic for RyouVeRua that I expanded on.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yuugiou.

When he first meets Ishizu, he is a desperate man who understands that he has touched what no mortal man should have ever touched, and she, a broken woman, dressed in layers upon layers of tangled strings which bind and pull at her. He feels guilty to place another on her, but she assures him that it is 'fate'. Her voice is serene, but cold, so very cold and devoid of emotion. The only thing about her that captures him are her stunning blue eyes - there is a desperate hunger in them as she reverently takes the cards from him.

It is many months later when they next meet again. They're in a high class restaurant - he's on here on the pretence of business - he'd like to hear some opinions on some new Egyptian themed cards, and perhaps the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antique would help? He knows she isn't fooled - she is a smart woman - so he wonders why she's here, really.

She is slightly hostile at first - not openly, never openly, but he sees it in the way she speaks, and the slight narrowing of her eyes. Despite his performances in front of Yuugi and his friends, he is a skilled conversationalist, and can speak _without_ offending people. He draws her slowly into conversation. Ishizu he decides, has changed from the woman he met many moons ago. She looks as impeccable as ever, but her voice - her voice has warmed considerably - the words flow from her mouth like liquid honey, warm and smooth. It is not this that draws him into her, but there is, he admits, a certain appeal to it.

No - it is the restrained passion that hides behind layers - layers of makeup, layers of grace, layers of decorum, layers of years living under strict rules which attempt and fail to suppress her fire that draws him to her. She expresses it through her kohl lined eyes as she speaks - there is a certain brightness from them, and the animation of her voice - it gently lilts up and down - as she speaks about the symbology and iconography of the Ancient Egyptians. Pegasus sits there, and thinks he might be content to stay like this forever.


	6. Haunt, Isis Ishtar x Yami no Yuugi

**Title:** Haunt  
**Pairing and Fandom:** onesided Avishipping(Yami no Yuugi x Isis Ishtar), Yuugiou  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary: **Many nights after Battle City, the memory of Isis Ishtar still haunts him.  
**Warnings: **slightly creepy? crappy writing?  
**Words: **564  
**Prompt:** Crown  
**Other:** For Elficiel. I'm sort of sick and I don't even know any more. I don't think I filled the prompt very well... Yami no Yuugi is very much affected by the modern day's ideas of people, which is why it's in-congruent with Egyptian norms. If I didn't do well enough, I guess, feel free to request a redo?  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yuugiou.

* * *

Isis Ishtar is a study in the beauty of understated elegance. She creates an aura of mystery around herself that invites one to stare, but never touch. To touch would be to ruin the image of the elegant statue, a pretty relic of the past. But to look? To look for too long would be to invite ecstatic madness onto oneself. He would almost welcome it in place of the longing.

Within this being lies power, mystery and a brush of tragedy, peeking out from behind serene eyes. She has unwittingly captured him, just like she had captured Kaiba, once. But whilst he is taken in by her, dreaming of kohl lined eyes and a swish of a long white dress, weeks after she leaves, Kaiba - Kaiba does not come down from his palace of cold rationality save for one. And that One is Mokuba. He cannot help but indulge in a slight schadenfreude, for Kaiba does not understand, will not understand, what he misses.

To be hidden from the madness of mere mortal want is a blessing, the monks say. He laughs, and laughs and laughs because the madness of mortals what it means to be alive. And Isis Ishtar?

Isis Ishtar is luminous.

She is the bringer of light where there is darkness, pushing, prodding, manipulating, lying, stealing, willing to do anything to make the ones she loves happy. If she cannot provide the light herself, she will find others, find others to bring that light to them.

He wants that light, craves it, it and Isis Ishtar. Her eyes haunt him, kohl outlined, lingering in his dreams to stare into a future he cannot see. They are deceptively blank eyes, beneath the surface a maelstrom of of emotions, turbulent, sucking in all that is offered to it. Her smiles linger in his sleep, sometimes wry, sometimes sad, always brief, touching her lips then flittering away, replaced by passiveness.

He imagines fingers, gently handling the treasures of their people. She had delicate fingers, he remembers. The callouses weren't easily spotted, hidden away by modern hand creams, but he has always had a sharp eye, if nothing else. She handles the cards with care, and caresses the Millenium Eye with a tender hand.

He is no Kaiba, but he does not understand how she affects him so.

Perhaps she was his queen in his past life. He can imagine it easily, a crown rested upon her head, a serene smile to comfort the masses, a nimble hand to mete out justice as they saw fit. She would be his right hand, an understanding of life guiding him to be a compassionate king. Behind the serenity would be a core of steel, the same then as now, a blade for cutting, the flat side to caress, the sharp edges to cut on a touch. She is a woman who would lift a nation to its feet, or bring it to it's knees, given the incentive.

But-  
She is not his to take. He is darkness, and he would surely swallow her light whole, snuff it out and destroy it. He would corrode away on her.

He does not know what sort of person he was. But he knows what he wants to be. He will not snuff another light.

Let dreams stay dreams.

_(Her eyes still haunt him, but his resolve is stronger.)_


	7. Atem and Yuugi, Beginnings

Characters: Atem, Yuugi Mutou

Keyword: beginnings

Other: A not very shippy, AU thing where Yuugi the little kid gets transported into Ancient Egypt. If I continued on with this, Yuugi would be a scribeMany thanks to My Misguided Fairytale for spotting a few errors! I've fixed them now. Many thanks to My Misguided Fairytale for spotting out a few errors!

He's not sure what to do with this pale scrap of foreigner they found in the dessert, dying of thirst and the desert heat. The only reason they had taken him in was because it had bore a startling resemblance to their Pharaoh.

He sees the resemblance. It's mostly in the hair, because only one of his Father's line could have produced this.

It doesn't explain the pale skin.

"Who are you?" he asks, having dismissed his servants for the day.

The child blinks at him. A jumble of words from some foreign language tumbles out from his mouth. It's endearing, but it doesn't help. He keeps repeating a word though - "yuuugiii yuuugiii" - and Atem sighs. He doesn't really want to deal with this, he misses his father.

He will apprentice this boy to one of the palace scribes, he thinks. It would far too harsh to throw him out to the dessert, and Atem, no matter how unprepared he feels, will follow in his Father's steps as a kind and compassionate ruler.


	8. Peachshipping, Anzu Mazaki x Yuugi Mutou

Anzu/Yuugi, spoilers for end series, post canon

Other: Many thanks to My Misguided Fairytale for spotting a few errors! I've fixed them now.

* * *

There's a tight feeling in his chest, and unfallen tears, a flurry of goodbyes, a promise of "I'll call." and "Take care." before it was off to America for dance school for Anzu.

Yugi is happy for her, but he misses her, and the comfort she brings him on nights when he dives too deeply into himself, driving himself into a frenzy of self doubt and loathing. She, perhaps out of all of them, knows the best what he is feeling.

They both had loved Atem in a way that was more than just platonic. She cradles him and reminds him of the progress he has made, and the friends - friends who are loyal, friends who will never betray - that he has made. "Yugi..." she whispers softly into his ear. She hesitates, lingering there for a mere moment. "Stay safe okay?" She gives him one last hug and goes, off into the airport, and to New York.

While she calls occasionally, it is simply not the same as being there in person. He appreciates what she does, however, as he soon finds out that international calls are very expensive, he memorises her schedule so he can make time in his to call her. It takes him up to odd hours in the morning.

"You don't have to." She laughs, but he can sometimes hear the haggardness in her voice, the result of working an extra late shift to make a living.

He simply smiles, and tells her that she is his friend, and it's alright.


	9. Selfish, Yami no Yuugi x Yuugi Mutou

Yami no Yuugi/Yuugi Mutou

keyword: selfish

spoilers for end of the series

* * *

Yugi stares at the full moon through the window of his hotel room. His chest feels hollow, as if someone had taken his beating heart, and ripped it out while he was under anaesthesia, leaving him with a static emotional blankness. It eats away at him, burning life away until there is only an empty shell left behind.

The winds are rattle and shake the window of his hotel room. They howl, sharp and whip like, a frenzied wake up call for the sand dunes, spinning them into wakefulness. High above the tempest, the moon is still, a beacon of serenity above the chaos. It entices the gaze, draws one's attention to itself. The raw ferocity of the winds cannot compare with the calm beauty of the moon. But the moon, for all its light is nothing, nothing but a pale reflection of the sun's brilliance.

Like a broken cassette take, it keeps playing on repeat within his mind. Atem strides forward, without fear or regret. The cloak of the Pharaoh rests upon his shoulders. A slight glance behind, a smile of pure happiness (focus on it, focus **on-the-happiness**), the visages of the people of the past (and where is the Thief King, his heart bleats. Where has he gone?) then the thumbs up.

Then he is gone.

He concentrates on these things - smile, thumbs up, smile, thumbs up, smile happy thumbs smile happy happy happy... He is happy for Atem. He is happy for Atem. He does not want him to stay. He does not want him to go. He wants to cling onto him forever because they are partners and- He...

He is selfish.

That night, he does not sleep.


	10. Hostshipping, Anzu Mazaki x Ryou Bakura

A/N – I can't remember exactly what honorifics everyone uses in relation to Ryou Bakura, and how he refers to other people, so I just went with no honorifics.

* * *

Anzu runs down the hall, panting for breath. She has a minute, last she checked, to get to class. If there is one thing that Nakamuri-sensei hates above all, it's lateness. He'd been in a bad mood recently. Student gossip had attributed it to martial problems. Well, it wasn't really her problem. A quick glance at her watch tells her she has thirty seconds. She curses, a gasp more than anything else, and picks up speed. Anzu slams into a warm body and falls to the ground winded.

"I'm so sorry!" rushes out from her lips. In the background, the bell rings. There's no point in rushing now. Anzu pushes herself up, and blinks. It's Bakura Ryou she's crashed into. She doesn't think that she's crashed into him hard enough for any lasting damage, but upon second glance, Anzu thinks she should take him to the nurse. He's pale, far more than usual, and he's trembling slightly. His eyes are red and watery, and… He… Doesn't look well. Anzu kneels beside him, and helps him into a sitting position.

"Ryou, are you alright?"

No response.

"Ryou?"

He looks up at her, eyes wide, startled, and in a low, raspy voice croaks, "I'm fine."

Anzu blinks. She has the sudden urge to give him a hug. He reminds her of a kicked puppy, huge watery eyes and fluffy white hair and a general air of dejection. She curbs the urge and helps him steady himself into a standing position, noting that he sways as he attempts to keep upright.

"You don't sound fine. Come on, I'll take you to the nurse."

"What about class?"

She shrugs. "I'm already late, and you know how Nakamuri-sensei is."

Anzu smiles slightly as she sees the grimace on his face.

"I'm fine," he protests.

Anzu presses a hand to his forehead, and pulls it back a moment later. She raises her eyebrows, and gives him a Look, born from the need to deal with idiots like Jounouchi and Honda. "Ryou, you've got a fever. You're not well." Her tones bears no room for argument, and Ryou seems to realise this, closing his mouth before he says anything. He slumps forward, the fight gone out of him. Anzu doesn't really want to see him like this, but he's sick, and she really doesn't think he's in any position to be going to school like this.

She leaves him at the Nurse's office, and obtains a late pass from the nurse, which she is grateful for. Nakamuri-sensei still glowers at her, but as he has no excuse to give her a detention, continues on with the lesson.

Anzu is distracted and jumpy for the rest of the day. She answers a question incorrectly in maths, responding with "Emperor Ishikawa". She can't keep her mind off Ryou. When was the last time was any of them had seen him, she wonders. She rarely has class with him, but surely Jounouchi, Honda or Yuugi would have seen him?

Right?

"Bakura?" Jounouchi gives her a strange look. "Only once or twice during gym."

Yuugi simply shakes his head, a sad look on his face. It reminds her of the time before, when he didn't have Jounouchi or Honda as his friends. When they were the ones who bullied him. "He's even quieter than before, and he always tells me he's fine." He looks worried. Anzu thanks him, and promptly switches the topic, not wanting to see him sad like this.

She feels guilty, because as far as she knows, none of them have bothered to talk to him after Duelist Kingdom.

This is why she finds herself outside his apartment, afterschool. She's only been here once before, and that had included the disastrous game of Monster World. She rings the doorbell and realises a moment after that Ryou's probably in bed. Should be in bed. She stands outside the door anxiously, and wonders if this is a mistake.

The door opens a crack.

For a moment, she sees the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, come back to haunt Ryou. She blinks, and the image is gone, and there is only Ryou, pale and haggard. There's a vacuum handle in his hand.

"Anzu?"

"Ryou!" They stare at each other for a moment in silence. Anzu clears her throat. "I was worried, so I came over to check up on you," she says and smiles. "Yuugi said hi." She steps forward a little. "May I come in?"

He blinks, shakes his head and opens the door, gesturing for her to come in.

"You should be in bed," she says with a frown when she sees the cleaning equipment around the house.

"I can't sleep."

She frowns. "You go to bed. Where do you keep your cold medicine?”

He stares at her.

"You don't have any?"

He mutely shakes his head no.

"I'll get some," she declares. She passed by a pharmacy on her way here, and she's certain she can get some there.

Before he can protest, she places her arms on his shoulders and steers him away from the living room. "You'll have to show me the way to your room, because I don't know where it is," she says with a grin, not really feeling it. One things for certain, she's not leaving until he's in bed.

Before Anzu leaves his room, he gives her a key. She blinks, puzzled, until he says, "It's for the front door. You'll need it to get in."

Anzu nods and takes it. Before she leaves, she packs up the cleaning equipment in a neat pile in living room, not sure where they were meant to go. She leaves the house quietly, and locks the front door.

Later, she lets herself back into the small apartment, slowly pushing the door closed, so as not to make a sound. Anzu leaves the food in the kitchen, and tip toes over to Ryou's room, pushing the door open slightly. He's whimpering and making small noises of protest, and she thinks she can hear words, jumbled between gasps. She tip toes over to his bed and kneels next to him, unsure of what to do. Weren't you not meant to wake people who were having nightmares? She brushes sweat covered locks of hair off his forehead, and takes his hand, wincing when he grips it. If she leaves it there for too long, then he'll cut off the blood eventually.

"It's alright," she says softly. "You'll be alright, Ryou."

His eyes open slowly, brown eyes wide. "Anzu…?"

She moves to stand. "I'll get you some medicine."

"No." He looks at her, eyes wide, beseeching her. "Stay. Please."

It stops her.

She sits down on the edge of his bed, and brushes his hair out of his eyes.

"Go back to sleep."

She sits there in silence, watching Ryou and occasionally pets his hair. His eyelids flicker intermittently, glancing up to check if she's still there. He falls asleep this time, sleeping peacefully. Anzu gets up, careful not to disturb him, and walk out to the kitchen. Her eyes blur at the sudden light, but she ignores it in favour of her self-appointed mission. She puts together something edible with her mediocre culinary skills, and leaves it in the fridge. She fills a glass with water, and fills it with a few ice cubes. She leaves that, and the cold medicine on the table next to Ryou's bed, along with a note.

_Get better soon. I've left cold medicine for you, and food in the fridge. :)_

_杏_

That done, she leaves.

* * *

Possible continuation to this in the works.


	11. Plans - Dartz x Yami no Yuugi

**Title:** plans  
**Pairing and Fandom:** Dartz x Yami no Yuugi, Yuugiou  
**Rating:** T  
**Words:** ~1000  
**Other:** Instead of being responsible and studying I wrote fanfic. I said I'd write this awhile back but then I entered exam period. Oops. Um. My hugest apologises, real life ate me?

For Elficiel who requested _Dartz & Yami Yuugi, anything precanon_. It involves precanon but it's not entirely precanon? Well, it's entirely precanon to the DOMA arc thingy. Also many thanks to my beta Jess. Also is there a name for this ship?

* * *

There is a pawn with white hair on the board. It stands in his way, and were he able, he would smite it, a fly in the path of the end goal. But behind every pawn is a manipulator a smear of corruption that has gained sentience, giving itself a name. The Orichalcos is not strong enough to take their souls for the Resurrection no matter how much it hisses and scratches at the edges of his mind, wanting. To resurrect the Leviathan, he will need souls with power within them, power of the likes of the Pharaoh of Egypt, his court and his enemies.

But here, now, at this point on the board, there is nothing to be done. When three parties play, one must wait until the others have resolved their conflict to play on. His path is blocked, for now.

But Dartz is patient. Dartz will wait.

The Orichalcos hisses in his mind, impatient. Demanding.

He will possess this soul.

* * *

He watches the tomb of the Pharaoh, that one day, shall reawaken. Never has there been an intruder that has succeeded in their quests of sin. None who have not been fated make it past. The Pharaoh's soul, a shade of, watches over its prison, waiting for the one. Those who come with greed in their hearts are Judged and felled.

He feels a strange kinship with the Shade, for they are both Judge and Jury and Executioner of the unworthy, cleanser of the Sinful.

Centuries pass, and he looks into the temple.

The soul is gone.

* * *

The soul has been lost and its container for the Puzzle to revive it gone. It is a shame, but Dartz must continue his preparations for the Resurrection. It will turn up, he knows, in its own time. The only way it could have left was if the gears of Fate had been set into motion.

There is no news for years. He knows that less than two decades have passed, but time seems to have slowed to a trickle as his machinations are set into motion. His servants do not have the same conception of time he does, and they are needy, wanting of purpose.

But one night, he feels the a shift in the atmosphere. Shadows uncurl and slither further into the light, slow and insidious. The taste of power is heavy on his tongue, and the air thick with shadows, heavy enough to choke on.

Dartz tracks down the source of the power, magic serving his purposes far better than the mundane. Even so, it takes weeks to find the source, a thick layer of ozone coating the natural ley lines of the earth. He finds the source, a boy, almost the mirror image of the Pharaoh. Around his neck-

A Pendant.

He probes gently at it, and feels the first stirrings of disgust curl within him. The Pharaoh's soul is incomplete. In its place is a wraith, a shade. It passes Judgement where it has no right, harsh beyond necessity for no goal other than its own. Judgement is for the good of humanity, Judgement is for cleansing.

The Leviathan will bring true Judgement on all corrupt souls, and create a world free of sin.

Dartz will keep his distance, until the time has come.

* * *

Until he doesn't.

Dartz takes it as his personal responsibility to watch the shade and its possessor. _Yami no Yuugi._ The name drops off his lips like sweet honey, and he savours the power of a Name. Even if it is not a true one, it is one of the shade's own making, and thus, it holds significance. It holds power, sweet and sticking and tantalising.

In-caution is something he should have learnt by now to avoid. But there is a certain _je ne sais quoi_ to Yami no Yuugi's soul, something that keeps him there, entrapped by beauty. He could spend hours simply observing the ever shifting dunes, swept into new shapes by dry winds that would strip the moisture from you, harsh and cruel. The glimmer of gold hovers at the edge of his awareness, covered in misty waves of Shadow.

He is dragged down below the dunes by tendrils of Shadow, and into a dimly lit room. Yami no Yuugi stands above him, watching with disinterest in his eyes. Dartz bows his head, and hides his smile.

"I wonder what it is that you seek to accomplish, spying where your eyes are unappreciated," Yami no Yuugi says and it is clear that it is a statement, and truly? He does not care.

Dartz says nothing. Waits.

Yami no Yuugi bends so that they are on the same level, the same as one would with a small child. Dartz feels soft, slender fingers brush gently against his chin, and they push his chin up so that they are eye to eye.

"Well?" he asks, and from behind Dartz, the Shadows lunge up and spear through his arms and legs, as if what they did to him would make any difference to his inevitable escape.

"I don't take kindly to intruders," Yami no Yuugi says, and there is an sharp edge to his voice that promises pain.

"No, I suppose you don't," Dartz murmurs, voice low and throaty, and his lips curl into a smile, ragged and vicious He laughs and pushes his head forward, and presses his lips against Yami no Yuugi's.

The split second of surprise is enough for him to disappear. He reappears a distance away, and leaps away again when shadows leap up from the floor to attack him.

There's a sardonic smile on his face. "This was educational," he declares, and now, now he is in-front of Yami no Yuugi, and a sharp punch to the solar plexus is enough to wind the man. "I'm afraid that you're going to have to forget now," he says, and draws on the power of the Orichalcos.

* * *

Dartz leaves the house that holds the shade known as _Yami no Yuugi_ and smiles. Things are progressing along nicely.


End file.
